


Please Stop, You're Dazzling

by TimelessWriting



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Future, Gift Fic, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, Sort of? - Freeform, i guess, not really - Freeform, oofuri xmas 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-09-30 02:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17215451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimelessWriting/pseuds/TimelessWriting
Summary: Hanai is really gay, and he just wants to get to work without having to develop a massive crush on that one well-built guy who always walks in front of him.





	Please Stop, You're Dazzling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [j3mj2m](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=j3mj2m).



> aaaaaa I know it's not much but!! I hope you enjoy it @j3mj2m! I had wanted to make it longer, but I didn't like any of my ideas so,, I hope u enjoy what I /do/ have. Merry belated Christmas and happy new year!
> 
> based on the tumblr prompt: there's a guy who is always in front of me on my way to work, and one day I got ahead so he ran in front of me so he wouldn't lose his streak (not actually these words i'm just lazy)
> 
> shoutout to anyone who gets the titled reference uwu

The first few times it happened, Hanai paid no notice to it. Everyone had to go to work, and if someone took the same route as him during morning rush hour, then it wasn’t that big of a deal. Eventually though, when it happens every day, there was no way someone couldn’t not take some notice to the fact that the same person somehow always managed to be just a few steps ahead of him. At least, that was the excuse Hanai told himself when he started watching out of the corner of his eye during his commutes to learn more about the person who always seemed to be just a few steps ahead of him.

It wasn’t particularly hard to achieve if he was being honest, when nearly everyone in the train was donning office-appropriate clothing or a school uniform. Hanai wasn’t sure he had ever seen the man dressed in anything other than sportswear, and the sight stood out like a sore thumb amongst the morning crowd.

The man was just slightly shorter than his height, and liked to stand in the small space between the train doors and the nearest seat. Hanai had initially assumed it was simply because of the morning crowd as office workers rushed to make the train so they could get to work, but even when the crowds thinned the stranger made no move to make himself more comfortable or to move to somewhere more spacious. In fact, Hanai noted that he seemed to dart into the space as soon as he boarded, like the way his sister’s cat had seemed to take pleasure from claiming ownership to his pillow when he was in college.

His sportswear wasn’t even remotely close to being for show either, as Hanai quickly found out one morning when the stranger stretched his arms up over his head. His shirt rode up to reveal a toned and muscled stomach, and redirecting his gaze did nothing for Hanai’s flustered disposition. When he looked up, all he got was an eyeful of the person’s equally as toned arms, if not more.

The only thing that Hanai could manage to bring to the forefront of his mind in the first few seconds afterwards was a choked, “Wow, I’m so incredibly gay.”

What kind of gay would he be if he couldn’t appreciate a good looking man when he saw one? The only tragedy was the likelihood of said good-looking man feeling similarly towards him was… miniscule, at best. So Hanai quietly resigned himself to admiring them from a distance, thankful for the constant overlapping schedules that were the start of his infatuation.

Their days passed by peacefully liked that for a while, Hanai waiting for the moment in which the (very attractive) stranger would tuck himself into his corner and then shoving himself through the bustling crowd to fall in line behind them on the way to work. It became a routine for Hanai, and suddenly the morning commute wasn’t so boring. In fact, it went undisturbed for so long that it was almost second nature by the time it was.

Hanai had been supposed to arrive at work earlier than usual, and had set an alarm to wake him up so he could make the train. Yet somehow, some way, he had slept through his alarm—an uncommon occurrence for him—and only woke up when his usual alarm went off. His panic was understandable, considering how late he was for work and had already missed the meeting he had scheduled with his boss. There was no time for his usual antics.

The moment he entered the train car from the moment he stepped out, Hanai was an antsy mess. All he could think about was making it to work as soon as possible to try and mitigate the damage he had done as much as possible. As soon as the train pulled into his stop, he shoved his way through and weaved through the crowds as fast as he could without bursting into a straight out sprint. If he was any less stressed, he’d have laughed at how reminiscent it was of his high school days when everyone would book it for the lunchroom as soon as class ended in hopes of getting the best choices.

He paused only to adjust himself to the sudden brightness leaving the station, and even that was little more than a hitch in his step. Not much more was on his mind than making sure his legs kept moving, especially when he noticed that the crossing light was close to counting down to red. One could imagine his surprise then, when right before he was about to reach the sidewalk, someone grabbed his hand briefly before propelling themselves in front of him and into the street.

It was enough to stop Hanai in his tracks, just long enough for the timer to click into zero and shift into the bright red walking silhouette. Shocked confusion shifted into anger and then into frustration, swinging right back around to the start again as he beheld a familiar figure waving to him across the street.

“I’ve beat you for three months straight! I can’t lose my streak now!” They gave him a cheeky grin and two-fingered salute, winking in a way that sent Hanai’s HP bar plummeting from a critical hit. They waved one more time and walked away with a pleased hint to their steps, and Hanai was left to oversee a battle between his brain and his heart. After all, his crush had just been so cute… but also they had just made him miss the crosswalk he had been trying desperately to make.

He let out a huff, crossing his arms to get comfortable waiting and determined to clear his mind lest his anger rule him. He didn’t get very far until he noticed a crumpled up receipt in the hand that had just been seized, something that had most definitely not been there before he got sabotaged. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together, and he swiftly smoothed out the piece of trash he had been spontaneously left with.

When he finally managed to decipher the chicken scratch, Hanai was sure he had been dreaming. There was absolutely no way that something so incredibly mortifying had happened to him now that he was a working class man living on his own. That experience was supposed to have been left behind when he moved out and left his sisters behind!

_‘I noticed you’ve been checking me out quite a bit lately. You’re kind of cute, we should get some drinks together if you swing that way ;)_

_-Tajima_

He had thought he was being subtle. He hadn’t even been outright staring! How on Earth did they manage to notice? Nothing would be better now than for the ground to just open up and swallow him whole… no worries, no grievances, no feelings at all.

Hanai took a deep breath and pocketed the note as the light changed once again, and settled on the decision that this was a problem for future Hanai. He had more pressing issues now.

It took him a few days to come to a decision on how to respond to the—confession?—note he had received, and if he hadn’t known better in the following days, he would have assumed that nothing had even happened. It wasn’t like Tajima acted any differently; in fact, it seemed as if Hanai didn’t even exist to him other than the occasional glance. The only proof of their encounter was the note that made it seem as if his briefcase weighed infinitely more than before.

Hanai honestly worried it was some kind of twisted prank because of that, and deliberated over whether or not he should ignore the note and play it safe to avoid those risks. Ultimately though, he… really wanted to believe it wasn’t, and let his heart make the decision for him.

The following day he specifically made sure to fit himself near the door, note folded neatly in the palm of his hand as if it were a good luck charm. The wait period until Tajima’s stop was near excruciating with how nervous Hanai was, and he didn’t even notice when he stopped breathing as Tajima stepped on board.

Nothing about their actions was out of the ordinary, from his sportswear to his loose way of holding himself. He stepped into the space by Hanai’s side without a single hitch, and it was only when the two finally made eye contact that Hanai promptly remembered his need to inhale oxygen.

All the words he had prepared for Tajima beforehand seemed to catch on his tongue upon actually meeting them, and the men stood staring at each other in silence for a quick moment. Hanai felt like he was back receiving his first middle school confession again. That illusion was swiftly broken upon the grin that broke across Tajima’s face however, and Hanai was ill prepared for the hand that jammed itself in front of him.

“I was worried you weren’t going to do anything!” Tajima exclaimed, or well, as loudly as one could exclaim in the train car without disturbing the peace. “I really thought I had just asked a straight man out for drinks. It wouldn’t be the first time but… Nice to meet you!”

Hanai swallowed the spit that had built up in his mouth out of nervousness, and managed a tentative, “N-Nice to meet you too… Was I really that obvious?”

Tajima looked as if he immediately understood what Hanai’s fear was, and let out a sharp laugh.

“Don’t worry about it! You were fine. I just happened to notice one day when I looked up; plus, I’m pretty damn observant. Consider it a symptom of my inability to stay still,” His grin was infectious, and Hanai couldn’t help but unconsciously relax his body. “I figured there were probably only three reasons why you’d watch me. You either thought I was weird, you were gay, or you wanted to kill me.”

Tajima ticked off each reason on his fingers, and Hanai immediately flushed back up upon hearing them. Each one was more mortifying to hear said out loud by a stranger than the last, and the displeased expression on his face must’ve been obvious if the amused reaction from Tajima said anything.

“Anyways, after you watched me for a few days, I was pretty sure it wasn’t because you thought I was weird. You didn’t seem invested enough for it to be premeditated murder either so… the only option left was that you were interested me! I figured if that was the case, I might as well shoot my shot, y’know?” He peered up at Hanai. “You’re pretty good looking too. Nothing to lose, right?”

Hanai frowned, immediately forcing himself to shift his attention from the fact that Tajima, his crush, had just called him _attractive_.

“You made me late for work because I missed the light.” Nevermind the fact that he had already been running late.

Tajima’s expression shifted from that of someone exchanging happy pleasantries to one of sheepish guilt as he reached back to scratch at the back of his neck.

“Ah, yeah… I didn’t think you’d miss the light when I did that… Sorry! No hard feelings, right?” For extra measures, he added on. “It’ll be my treat, if you want to go out for drinks later! Or just dinner, if you don’t drink. You don’t have to drink.”

Hanai cursed his heart for being so weak to attractive men. Especially attractive, athletic men with cute smiles.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s fine with me.” God, his mouth was so dry. Pull yourself together Hanai. “I get off work at seven normally, but I have Sundays off.”

Tajima lit back up, and the grin on his face was infectious. Hanai felt himself returning it without even thinking about it.

“My Sundays are free too! That means we can meet up tomorrow, cool. There’s a place at our stop that specializes in really good finger food, if that’s alright with you. It’s the perfect place for a first date, speaking from experience. I’m totally down for a different place if you’d rather try something else though!”

Hanai shook his head just as the train entered the station, and their conversation took a break as the two of them jostled their way through the morning rush. The crowd didn’t clear up enough for them to click back together until several meters away from the platform, yet that didn’t stop them from picking back up their conversation without a hitch on their way out the station exit.

“That’s fine with me. Is it alright if we meet up for a late lunch? Around 4pm or such...” Hanai grimaced. “I’m not exactly what you’d consider a morning person…”

Tajima’s laugh was melodious. Hanai wondered briefly how many times he was going to laugh, and promptly came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter if it was coming from Tajima. The sound was nothing but pleasant, and Hanai was sure he could likely spend the rest of his human life listening to it without tiring of the sound.

“That’s more than fine! Here.” They paused on the other side of the intersection, right in the place where Tajima had yelled to him on that fateful day. Tajima reached into the depths of his pocket and upon scrounging about for a few seconds, managed to unveil a sharpie and yet another crumpled receipt. He lifted up his leg so he could write on his thigh, and Hanai tensed up in preparation to catch him should he tip over. He shouldn’t have underestimated the strength of Tajima’s core however, and Tajima managed to scribble out the information while on one leg with a practiced ease. “This is the address for the place, and my number! Text me later so I can add yours too!”

Hanai took the paper and smoothed it out before neatly folding it and tucking it into his suit pocket. When he looked back up, Tajima was checking his watch with a groan and then giving him a disappointed look––although it didn’t seem particularly aimed towards him.

“I have a meeting with a sponsor soon, so I have to go now…” Tajima sulked. “I’ll see you tomorrow! I’m looking forward to our date!”

As soon as Hanai nodded his own goodbyes, Tajima took a few steps backwards until he was far enough to spin around and begin to jog in the opposite direction of Hanai’s destination. Without even thinking, Hanai stood there watching as Tajima’s back moved further and further away, not even processing what had all just happened yet. It allowed for him to be easily caught off guard when Tajima abruptly stopped a good twenty-five feet away, hollering out: “Wait! I never got your name! What do I call you?”

At this point, they had gotten more than a few odd looks from Tajima’s loudness. Hanai had to choke out a reply as loud as he could while ignoring the lingering stares on him, yelling, “H-Hanai! You can call me Hanai!”

Tajima’s resulting grin was bright as the sun, and Hanai couldn’t bring himself to care about the nosy gazes on the two of them anymore. Tajima was just that charismatic, and Hanai felt that he had likely struck gold in managing to attract the attention of such a dazzling person.

“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow, Hanai!”

**Author's Note:**

> find me @theworstpitcher on twitter


End file.
